tagged w/ Whaling
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According to Avaaz it has, read their article below:
"Right now, the Japanese whaling fleet is barrelling south to hunt thousands of majestic whales, escorted by a 30 million dollar security force paid for out of the tsunami disaster relief fund!
Anti-whaling champions were successfully blocking the Japanese whale hunt -- which is exactly why the Japanese government decided to swipe money from relief efforts to stop the activists from bothering the boats while they engage in their brutal slaughter.
If we can stop the whaling security and get the relief money back for desperate Japanese citizens still languishing in radioactive hotspots, we could help end the whale hunt for good. Japanese PM Noda is already under enormous pressure after scandalous failures to compensate victims of the nuclear disaster. A massive global outcry can spark outrage inside and outside Japan and force Noda to use precious relief funds to save people, not kill whales - sign the petition and forward to everyone:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/japan_disaster_funds_whaling_b/?vl
Whale hunting is astronomically expensive, and it's made possible by ludicrous government subsidies amounting to $35,000 per whale! If these subsidies are cut back, the whaling industry could collapse. Now the Prime Minister will squander $30 million to provide private security for whale slaughterers to make sure they’re not bothered by environmental activists in the ocean. With the added muscle, Japan plans to kill 1,000 Minke whales for commercial meat sales this year.
Officials claim that whaling subsidies will support coastal communities hit by the tsunami -- even though Japan has had to stockpile whale meat because so few people wish to consume it. All the while, the government has turned a blind eye to victims trapped in radiation hot-spots, with the few who are entitled to compensation pocketing a pitiful $1,000.
Let's urge Prime Minister Noda to stop caving to the whaling lobby and spend relief money on the people who need it most: the victims -- sign the urgent petition now, and forward widely:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/japan_disaster_funds_whaling_b/?vl
Last year, our community came together in record numbers, and we won the fight to keep a global ban on whaling. And last month, 130,000 Japanese Avaaz members joined together, pressing the government to use tsunami relief funds to protect radiation-exposed children by funding their evacuation from unsafe areas. Time and again we see how powerful lobby groups like the Japanese whaling lobby put profits before people and planet. And time and again, we stop them. Let's do it again. "
What do you think? Could the claims be true?According to Avaaz it has, read their article below:
"Right now, the... more
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Right now, the Japanese whaling fleet is barrelling south to hunt thousands of majestic whales, escorted by a 30 million dollar security force paid for out of the tsunami disaster relief fund!
Anti-whaling champions were successfully blocking the Japanese whale hunt -- which is exactly why the Japanese government decided to swipe money from relief efforts to stop the activists from bothering the boats while they engage in their brutal slaughter.
If we can stop the whaling security and get the relief money back for desperate Japanese citizens still languishing in radioactive hotspots, we could help end the whale hunt for good. Japanese PM Noda is already under enormous pressure after scandalous failures to compensate victims of the nuclear disaster. A massive global outcry can spark outrage inside and outside Japan and force Noda to use precious relief funds to save people, not kill whales - sign the petition on the right and share this campaign with everyone.
(click on the link to sign the petition)Right now, the Japanese whaling fleet is barrelling south to hunt thousands of... more
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Japan
Blood Money: Tsunami Recovery Funds Go to Japan’s Whaling Industry
By Krista Mahr | December 12, 2011
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PHOTO:
Sankei / Getty Images
Japan's research whaling fleet Nissin Maru returns its home at Oi Pier on April 12, 2010 in Tokyo, Japan.
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They’re baaaaaaaccck. Whale hunting season kicked off in Japan last week as three ships set off with a security vessel on their annual pilgrimage to cull hundreds of minke and fin whales in Antarctic waters. And so begins the annual showdown between the whalers and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the tenacious, publicity-savvy anti-whaling group that chases the Japanese fleet around the frigid waters of the sixth continent each winter. The yearly spectacle features scuba-clad activists zipping around in fast boats, lobbing stink bombs at the whaling ships and generally making life miserable for the crew who keep Japan’s 19th-century dream alive. The annual tussle even has its own reality show.
Whaling is not an easy practice to defend these days, particularly when recent polls have shown that 95% of Japanese eat whale meat rarely, if at all. The state-backed industry, which Japan considers its sovereign right to pursue as part of a centuries-old tradition, is under attack both by environmental groups at home and abroad. And yet the government did not do its beleaguered case any favors when it confirmed last week that $29 million of the national post-tsunami recovery fund had been allotted to the whaling industry, including to provide extra security for the whaling fleet.
They had to know that wasn’t going to go down well. Environmental groups in Japan are outraged that the disaster fund is being used to prop up an industry they have been fighting against for years. Though commercial whaling has been banned for decades, Japan is one of a handful of nations that continue their catch with the permission of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for scientific purposes, culling about 1000 whales annually. “Pouring billions of yen into Antarctic whaling during this time of crisis is downright shameful,” Junichi Sato, head of Greenpeace Japan, told the Guardian last week. “Japan cannot afford to waste money on whaling in the Antarctic when its people are suffering at home.”
Tokyo says the whaling industry needs the support of the fund to get back on its feet after March 11 just like other fishing communities on the devastated northeastern coast of Japan. Port towns like Ayukawa that were built on the back of the multi-million dollar whaling industry were destroyed along with so much else, and, like their neighbors, residents there want to get their businesses back up and running, too. “Many people in the area eat whale meat,” an official from Japan’s Fisheries Agency told CNN. “They are waiting for Japan’s commercial whaling to resume and it is their hope for recovery.”
But padding the industry with reconstruction money is not the end of Japan’s efforts to protect its scientific endeavors. Last year, the government caved in to the pressure Sea Shepherd exerted on its ships and crew and called off the hunt early, with only about one-fifth of its intended catch. On Dec. 9, the Institute of Cetacean Research, the government body that manages the yearly cull, announced that it filed a lawsuit along with shipowner Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha against Sea Shepherd and its founder, Paul Watson. ICR and Kyodo Senpaku are seeking a court order to prevent “SSCS and its founder Paul Watson from engaging in activities at sea that could cause injuries to the crews and damage to the vessels.”
Watson, whose organization is based in the U.S. state of Washington, responded immediately to the news of the law suit. “We have not caused a single injury nor have we been charged with a crime or even reprimanded by anyone for our actions,” he is quoted as saying on the organization’s web site. “This is simply a case of using the courts to harass us. I don’t believe they have a case and I doubt a U.S. court would take this seriously. Unlike Japan, the courts in the United States don’t automatically do what the government demands that they do.” The organization is currently planning to send 88 crew members on three ships to do its yearly battle under the banner of “Operation Divine Wind.”
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Krista Mahr is a correspondent at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @kristamahr. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.
Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/12/12/blood-money-tsunami-recovery-funds-go-to-japans-whaling-industry/#ixzz1gOb4SqJ7
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Japan
Blood Money: Tsunami Recovery Funds Go to Japan’s... more
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This podcast shows the beauty of the Faroe islands. The Faroese are rarely talked about in the media, except when being demonised for their cultural tradition of whaling. This video features local folk singer Eivør Pálsdóttir performing in Gota church and also tells the story of the first black man on the faroe islands.This podcast shows the beauty of the Faroe islands. The Faroese are rarely talked... more
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Japan has suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt following protests from a campaign group.
Activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a US-based environmental group, have been chasing the Japanese fleet's mother ship.
An official at the country's fisheries agency said whaling had been halted "for now" because of safety concerns.
Japan says it suspended its hunt on 10 February. It is unclear whether the expedition, which would usually end mid-March, will be called off permanently.
"Putting safety as a priority, the fleet has halted scientific whaling for now. We are currently considering what to do hereafter," Tatsuya Nakaoku, an official at the fisheries agency, told Reuters news agency.
But he said nothing had been decided yet.
Activists' ships have been harrying the fleet for weeks in the icy seas of Antarctica.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society says one of its boats has been blocking the main ship's stern loading ramp, preventing any harpooned whales from being loaded on to the ship.
"If that's true then it demonstrates that our tactics, our strategies, have been successful," Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson told the AFP news agency by satellite phone from the Steve Irwin ship.
"I don't think they've gotten more than 30 whales... certainly they haven't got many whales at all."
Japan's fleet involves 180 people on four ships, with the aim to kill up to 945 whales in Antarctic waters during the southern winter season.
Japan says it continues to hunt for scientific research, while not concealing the fact that much of the meat ends up on dinner plates, the BBC's Roland Buerk in Tokyo reports.
Few Japanese eat whale regularly, but many object to what they see as unjustified foreign interference in a cultural tradition, our correspondent adds.
Anti-whaling nations, led by Australia and New Zealand, and environmental groups say the hunts are cruel and unnecessary. Australia is taking legal action in the International Court of Justice against Tokyo over whaling.Japan has suspended its annual Antarctic whale hunt following protests from a campaign... more
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American diplomats proposed Japan reduce whaling in exchange for US help cracking down on the anti-whaling activists Sea Shepherd, leaked cables reveal.
Japan and the US proposed to investigate and act against international anti-whaling activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as part of a political deal to reduce whaling in Antarctic waters.
Four confidential cables from the US embassy in Tokyo and the state department in Washington, released by WikiLeaks, show US and Japanese diplomats secretly negotiating a compromise agreement ahead of a key meeting last year of the International Whaling Commission, the body that regulates international whaling.
The American proposal would have forced Japan to reduce the number of whales that Japan killed each year in the Antarctic whale sanctuary in return for the legal right to hunt other whales off its own coasts. In addition, the US proposed to ratify laws that would "guarantee security in the seas" – a reference to acting against groups such as Sea Shepherd that have tried to physically stop whaling.
The US proposal was eventually shot down by Britain and the EU in June 2010, but the cables show that the Sea Shepherd group had become a political embarrassment to Japan after stopping its whaling fleet reaching its annual quota of whale killed for several years.
The group, led by Captain Paul Watson, a co-founder of Greenpeace, has a reputation for physically confronting whalers, sealers and illegal fishing boats. Its flotilla of ships, which sport the skull and crossbones flag, monitors illegal fishing in the Galapagos islands and spends months each year following and harassing the Japanese whaling fleet in frequently dangerous clashes.
Yesterday two Sea Shepherd ships, the Steve Irwin and the Gojira were involved in cat and mouse skirmishes with two whaling ships. Activists reportedly hurled stink bombs onto the deck as whalers tried to use water cannon.
The US cables show how on 2 November 2009, Shuji Yamada, Japan's vice-minister for international affairs, asked lead US negotiator Monica Medina about an investigation of the tax affairs of Sea Shepherd. It is unclear whether the US government had already launched an investigation or which country had proposed it.
"Yamada inquired about an investigation into the tax status of the US-based NGO Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and repeated Japan's request for the US to take action against the organisation, which he said created a very dangerous situation on the seas," says one cable.
The US government dodged this request but the cable continues: "The DCM replied that the US places the highest priority on the safety of vessels and human life at sea, and added that if any violations of US law are discovered, we will take appropriate enforcement action".
But the Japanese diplomats then responded, "It would be easier for Japan to make progress in the IWC negotiations if the US were to take action against the Sea Shepherd".
One week later, the Japanese pressed the US to take action against Sea Shepherd again, saying that "violent protests by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) could limit the government of Japan's flexibility in the negotiations".
It appears from the diplomatic chatter that the US did look into the NGO's status. In the same cable, Medina is reported as saying that the US government, "can demonstrate the group [Sea Shepherd] does not deserve tax exempt status based on their aggressive and harmful actions".
The cables then suggest that the US had itself proposed the tax investigation of Sea Shepherd, saying in the same cable on 9 November 2009: "the Netherlands should have primary responsibly for taking action against the SSCS, but he [the Japanese diplomat] appreciates the US government initiative to address the group's tax exempt status".
The US attempt to compromise with Japan failed at the IWC meeting in June after a majority of countries, led by Australia, the European Union, and the Latin American nations rejected it.
In a statement made yesterday from the Sea Shepherd flagship, Captain Watson said: "The US government may have very well looked into Sea Shepherd's activities and if they did so, then they obviously did not find any irregularities or unlawful activities because Sea Shepherd was never contacted by any US government official in connection with this matter. For Sea Shepherd, the most important part of this document is the declaration by Japan that Sea Shepherd has been responsible for the whaling fleet not reaching their quotas for the last few years. This completely validates Sea Shepherd's actions as effective."
Go To article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/06/wikileaks-secret-whaling-deal?CMP=twt_guAmerican diplomats proposed Japan reduce whaling in exchange for US help cracking down... more
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1,100+ Whales To Die!
Blogpost by John Hocevar - December 8, 2010 at 9:56
[Greenpeace email]
As you read this..., the Japanese whaling fleet is steaming towards the Southern Ocean to begin their annual whale slaughter. Their planned death "quota" this season: nearly 1,000 minke whales, 50 humpback whales, and 50 endangered fin whales.
We must stop this massacre now.
During the 2008 campaign, then-Senator Obama said, "As president, I will ensure that the U.S. provides leadership in enforcing international wildlife protection agreements, including the international moratorium on commercial whaling." Three more whaling seasons have come and gone since Obama spoke those words, and no change has been made.
Please rush your most generous contribution as we put pressure on President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise!
"Allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable," as President Obama himself has stated, and Greenpeace is rallying support to put a stop to the slaughter, once and for all.
Commercial whaling is not only unacceptable—it's a violation of international law.
Picture a Japanese harpoon ship speeding through the Southern Ocean. Suddenly, the harpooner spots a mother whale and her calf. The sounds of the ocean are drowned out by the blasts of exploding-tip harpoons being fired at the whales.
The pair struggles to free themselves from the harpoon lines for nearly an hour, desperately thrashing their tails in the water, before a gunman finally steps onto the deck and shoots them dead. The mother whale and her baby are dragged up the ship’s slipway, leaving a long trail of blood behind them.
Much to our frustration, in a few days time this tragic scene will play out in the Southern Ocean over and over again. Greenpeace needs your help, and the help of President Obama, to put an end to the slaughter of our oceans’ most unique, intelligent, and emotional creatures.
Please help us stop this terrible massacre and save the lives of these whales with your most generous donation NOW.
Together, we can let Japan know that commercial whaling has no place in the 21st Century.1,100+ Whales To Die!
Blogpost by John Hocevar - December 8, 2010 at 9:56... more
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This is from Elora's bog - a brave 16 year old blogging from Taiji about the dolphin slaughters:
I want to start this blog preaching to the choir a little. I might have already said most of this, but I don’t care, it’s on my mind and I want to put it out. They talk about “Culture” and “Tradition”… and yes, actually 400 years ago they did hunt whales, but it is different. Steven Nakada from Japan, showed us how to properly enter a place that was used to pray for the lives of the whales. Back 400 years ago, when the town was starving and there was no farm land, they would come and pray for the life of the Whale ( and the people who were sacrificing their life to bring it to the village). Steven N. told us about how they could loose up to ten men every time they tried to row in a Whale, because it is a large animal. The families would cry, but pray for their fathers, sons, husbands or friends that sacrificed to feed them. The promatory we are always talking about, is a old whale look out spot. The stairs would be used to watch for signs of a pod, there were thousands more back then, and then they as a village would pray at the small temple that is just behind the stairs. This is the way it was and should still be (if whaling must exist). Dolphins are Whales. The practice of driving them into the killing Cove with motor boats and metal poles started in 1972 ish. IT is not culture… it turned into a business. Do they really think they can use the excuse of “Culture” when they are capturing constantly and SELLING half the pods. If this was really the way that they need to feed the Japanese people still, they wouldn’t have sold over a hundred dolphins this season alone.
What really pisses me off, is the fact they think they own the animals! They do not have the right to pull them from their home, and sell them for profit and show. It’s slavery! Not only is this rape of our Oceans a holocaust, but a slave trade as well. “Dolphins are non human persons”-Thomas White, and need to be treated as such.
No one believes this bull about culture, except the un-educated people who do not know or chose not to care. That is who we need to reach out to… because the rest of the world views these excuses and the people who use them as uneducated pathetic liars. The hunters are molesters, and the government pays them to be… only the human species would.
Today we spread out all over town, the cove, and Le trail. There was no where they could go were there was not a camera. No place to hide, it was wonderful. We all updated each other on what was happening by phone and were able to set up an actual operation.
I have to get up at 3am tomorrow morning again, because they left over 100 dolphins in the Cove tonight, that we expect will be slaughtered. They captured 36 dolphins for the trade today, and took one baby to the whale museum.
Read more updates from the blog: http://eloramalama.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/culture-capture-and-sell-slaughter-and-poison/This is from Elora's bog - a brave 16 year old blogging from Taiji about the... more
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WHALE meat is on the menu at about a sixth of Japan's state-run primary and junior high schools, a survey released today showed.
Of 29,600 public primary and junior high schools nationwide providing lunches for students, 5355 schools served whale meat at least once during the fiscal year to March 2010, the survey by Kyodo news revealed.
In Japan, cooked whale meat was a regular item on school lunch menus in the 1960s and 1970s as the annual supply of the meat reached a peak of 220,000 tonnes. It subsequently fell out of favour, with the supply dwindling to around 1000 tonnes in the 1990s as an international ban on commercial whaling was introduced.
But whale meat has recently made a reappearance on the school lunch table as the country gradually increased its catch of the ocean giants, Kyodo said.
The Institute of Cetacean Research, which carries out whaling in the name of research, sells whale meat to local municipalities for school lunch use at one-third of the market price, it said.
Japan hunts whales under a loophole to an international moratorium that allows the killing of the sea mammals for scientific research but it does not hide the fact that the meat is later sold in shops and restaurants.WHALE meat is on the menu at about a sixth of Japan's state-run primary and... more
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Environmental and animal-welfare groups are urging the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to persuade the World Health Organization (WHO) to act over fears about eating whale meat.
The coalition of organisations wants the WHO to issue guidelines amid fears about the safety of the meat.
The groups say whale meat is highly contaminated with mercury and should not be eaten.Environmental and animal-welfare groups are urging the International Whaling... more
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Written by Hardy Jones from BlueVoice.org
I was headed for Nuuk, Greenland, to attend the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). As the doors closed on my IcelandAir flight from JFK, my iPhone told me the International Whaling Commission (IWC), with U.S. assent, had voted to allow Greenland to kill 27 humpback whales for aboriginal subsistence.
An hour out of Keflavik, I realized the humpbacks that have now become targets of the hunt were swimming a mere vertical mile below me. I had come to know this stock of whales in the Caribbean at Samana Bay and out on the Silver Banks. They were extraordinarily friendly toward me as I filmed them underwater. We looked at each other eye-to-eye, each knowing the other was aware of the other. The idea of their being harpooned is appalling to me.
The quota granted by the IWC specified the hunt could not begin until mid-October. But Greenland has announced the hunt will begin immediately, in flagrant violation of the permit. After landing in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, I would find other violations.
Along most of their migratory route off the eastern seaboard of the United States, the humpbacks are protected. In response to protection, they've become increasingly friendly and curious toward the whale watchers who now are part of a multimillion dollar business for charter boat owners, hotels, restaurants and transport companies. They approach boats and eyeball passengers with astonishing trust. That trust will now be rewarded by a harpoon.
Aboriginal hunts of marine mammals are a highly complex ethical issue. It is true that the Inuit and their cousins have traditionally thrived on what they call natural food -- caribou, seal, beluga, whales, and other marine mammals. They do not have much money with which to draw food from the cash economy, and they do not fare well on the kind of food eaten by Europeans and Americans.
But it turns out that Greenland's hunt for whales is as much about profits as it is about aboriginal rights.
I discovered in Nuuk that Greenlanders are not observing the terms of the IWC quota that permits the hunt be conducted solely for aboriginal subsistence purposes.
I checked out markets and restaurants and immediately and easily found whale meat for sale in commercial channels. To document my finds, I used my iPhone to snap stills and record video. In the supermarket I found packaged whale meat. In a Thai restaurant I found whale sushi and whale and Rangoon Whiskey soup. In a greasy spoon burger/pizza joint I found whale steak.
The Inuit of Greenland complain that they do not have enough whale to sustain themselves. They may be having a hard time getting whale meat because the big money guys are sucking it all up for the more lucrative commercial trade.
My final discovery came on the last day of the ICC. A young Inuit from eastern Greenland told me pleadingly that his village needed to take whales outside the IWC quota. "We steal them," he told me.
"What species of whale are you taking?" I asked.
"Any kind that the elders tell us," came his reply.
Humpbacks have been missing from Greenlandic waters for sixty years -- hunted out by whalers. Their population has now recovered to the extent that explorer whales have made their way back to ancient feeding grounds. This should be cause for joyous celebration -- not a dreadful slaughter.Written by Hardy Jones from BlueVoice.org
I was headed for Nuuk, Greenland, to... more
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Over the last few weeks, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has maintained a presence in the Danish Protectorate of the Faeroe Islands.
Sea Shepherd is partnered with the Brigitte Bardot Foundation in our opposition to the brutal and barbaric slaughter of pilot whales by Faeroese citizens.
It is a slaughter more horrific than the killing of the dolphins in Taiji, Japan, and it is taking place in Europe in violation of the Berne Convention, to which Denmark is a signatory.
From our ship the Golfo Azzurro, Sea Shepherd and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation have been gathering evidence on the slaughter of the whales and deploying experimental acoustical devices in the water to ward migrating pilot whales away from the island.
We have kept this idea quiet until now, but today the Faeroese media reported that a pod of pilot whales had escaped because of sounds being broadcasted under the water.
Well, they caught us. We have been doing just that, and it appears that the devices work, and if they work we will be returning next year with more of them to deploy.
The Faeroese slaughter entire pods, including pregnant females and young calves. Not a single whale survives once the Faeroese pull out their long knives and clubs. They perish in an agonizing bloody orgy as drunken fishermen hack, stab, club, and slash the defenseless animals to death, filling the bay with blood.
The Faeroese call it “The Grind” and say it is a tradition and a gift from God. We call it a sadistic blood sport and a crime, a violation of the rules of the European Community, of which the Faeroes receives full benefits.
The acoustical devices can be left in the sea and will operate for weeks on batteries. They may be the key to saving the lives of many of these gentle whales, deterring them away from the violently cruel reception that the Faeroese would otherwise give them.Over the last few weeks, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has maintained a presence... more
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There's a tight and surprising link between the ocean's health and ours, says marine biologist Stephen Palumbi. He shows how toxins at the bottom of the ocean food chain find their way into our bodies, with a shocking story of toxic contamination from a Japanese fish market. His work points a way forward for saving the oceans' health -- and ours.There's a tight and surprising link between the ocean's health and ours,... more
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Negotiations on the future of commercial whaling have collapsed, with pro- and anti-whaling nations unable to break a decades-long deadlock.
The defeat of the move to overturn a 24-year ban on commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference in Morocco was a victory for Australia's anti-whaling stance.Negotiations on the future of commercial whaling have collapsed, with pro- and... more
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Attempts to agree a compromise between whaling nations and their opponents at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting have failed.
After two days of private discussions, delegates reported they had been unable to reach agreement on major issues.
The deal would have put whaling by Iceland, Japan and Norway under international oversight for 10 years.
Talks on the "peace process" have been going on for two years, and a further year's "cooling-off period" is likely.
The path forwards now is unclear. Many delegates are asking whether there is any point in leaving the issue open for a further year; if agreement is impossible, they suggest it would be better to face up to the fact now.
Opting for more time would "raise the question of the commission's credibility," said Remi Parmentier, senior policy adviser to the Pew Environment Group, which has been one of the organisations backing the exploration of compromise.
But there may also be a reluctance to leave the more constructive tone of the previous two years behind, and risk a return to the acrimony that formerly characterised the IWC.
However, other anti-whaling groups were pleased that their governments did not accept the draft agreement, as in their view it would have legitimised the whaling programmes of Iceland, Japan and Norway.
"Had this deal lived, it would have lived in infamy," said Patrick Ramage, head of the International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) whales programme.
"There may be a cooling-off period in the IWC, but meanwhile the whalers will be in hot pursuit of their prey."Attempts to agree a compromise between whaling nations and their opponents at the... more
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Almost all species of whale are endangered and still they are hunted for "scinetific reasons" or simply because the country doesnt beleive they should stop.
something must be done to stop whaling.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10362015.stmAlmost all species of whale are endangered and still they are hunted for... more
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Plans to overturn the 25-year old global ban on commercial whaling in return for reducing the numbers of whales killed each year were in confusion today with governments and groups divided.
The 88 countries who are members of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) today agreed to meet in closed session for two days in Agadir, Morocco, to decide whether to adopt a draft plan which would allow Norway, Iceland and Japan to legally hunt whales around Antarctica and elsewhere for 10 years in exchange for a gradual drop in the number killed.
The EU, led by Britain, adopted a common negotiating position at the weekend which rules against the resumption of any commercial whaling. But the US and New Zealand have continued to strongly back the package of measures proposed by the chair of the IWC.
In a move that took many people by surprise, three of the world's largest international non-government groups, Greenpeace, WWF and the Pew Environment Group, today said they were prepared to see commercial whaling resumed if six conditions were met.
In a joint statement they demanded: an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean; an end to trade in whale meat and products; the elimination of unilaterally decided whaling quotas; an end to hunts of endangered whale species; putting science at the centre of IWC decisions and prevention of objections or reservations by IWC members if the moratorium is lifted.
"I urge the negotiators to take political risks to improve the current proposal, end the decades of IWC deadlock and bring it into the 21st century. The meeting in Agadir can and must save whales, not whaling industries reliant on bribery and embezzlement for survival," said Junichi Sato, programme director of Greenpeace Japan.
But this was immediately rejected by many other environment groups including the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society and the International Fund for Animal Welfare who said they were not willing to accept any return to commercial whaling.
"This weakens the EU position. It would be a fundamental mistake now to reward those three whaling nations who have continued to ignore the international consensus on commercial whaling and are opposed by millions of people around the world," said Nikki Entrup of WDCS.
"What kind of message does that give out to countries like Korea who used to whale? I urge Greenpeace to withdraw their position. They want to do the right thing in principle but more whales are killed in the northern hemisphere than in the south," he said.
Whaling kills up to 2,000 whales a year, including species on the verge of extinction. Since the ban was introduced 25 years ago, approximately 33,000 whales have been killed, according to the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington.
But there are fears that if no agreement is reached, the IWC as an organisation could collapse. The meeting in Agadir ends on Friday 25 June.Plans to overturn the 25-year old global ban on commercial whaling in return for... more
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